Travelin' Soldier
by Sarah Wayne
Summary: Roy and Riza from their first days to the end and their love. Royai! T for safety
1. Alchemy

I love Royai! I do, I do, I do! It's so obvious that they dig each other, and well, it's so dang cute. So, here is another one of my tributes to them. Enjoy, no flamers, thanks. 

**_Disclaimer: I don't own FMA or Roy or Riza or the Dixie Chicks…duh._**

"Travelin' Soldier" 

She was fifteen when she first met Roy Mustang. He was an aspiring alchemist who had come to her father as an apprentice. At first she had hated him. Always keeping her father away from her. She was being enrolled in the military academy and was doing quite well. She was the best sharpshooter in the class. But no. Her father would only talk about or talk to Roy. It made her sick. She'd watch him, from her bedroom window, acting all macho 'cause he knew about fire. She'd smile every time her father gave him a lecture, he deserved it. One day, when she came home from school, she found her father on the living room floor, coughing up blood. She struggled to get him to his room and into bed. She called the doctor and gave him his pills. She waited for the doctor to finish. She hoped beyond hope, that no one would take her daddy away from her. He was all she had left. Roy came, she yelled at him, telling him to go home. He wasn't part of the family and he wasn't needed. He just nodded and went away. The doctor told her, her father only had a short time left. He wasn't sure how long. Days, hours, minutes, weeks, months, or years. She nodded but did not cry. The next day, her father was up on his feet again, training Roy. She sat on the stoop, peeling apples, watching. Roy had improved. She looked away. That night, her father took her to the woods by their house.

"Riza," he said. She looked up at him with big auburn eyes.

"Yes Papa?" she said.

"My darling, my baby girl, I need you to help me," her father said. Tears were filling his eyes. He coughed.

"What is it Papa?" she asked. He took a breath.

"I'm not going to live very long Riza, and I want you, to hold onto my most important alchemy secret. Can you do that?" he asked, grasping her shoulders. She nodded. He hugged her.

"Good, now this is what I have to do," he said. Riza sat with her back to her father as he cut her long, blonde locks. She held her head high as he drew the blood ruin onto her back. She was scared, but did not show it. She was a soldier and did not show emotion. If this is what was meant for her to keep her father's most powerful alchemy, than she would do it without hesitation. She felt his palm on her skin slowly warm to a burning blaze. She heard a far off scream that sounded like her own. Her ears popped, and all she remembered was white, hot flame, and the smell of burning flesh. She woke up the next day in her bed, bandaged up, and groggy. Her grandfather sat next to the bed. Her late mother's father. He smiled at her. Months past without a problem from her father, till one afternoon. She was staying after school to help with some kids who needed help on sniper shooting. When she returned home, Roy was waiting for her. He looked, sad.

"I'm so sorry," he said as she came to the door.

"Why? What happened?" she asked. He stared at the floor.

"TELL ME!" she yelled. He looked at her.

"Your father...he's…" but he couldn't finish. Riza ran into the house, dropping everything, and ran straight into her father's room. He lay in his bed, sleeping, or so she thought. She ran to his bed, and shook him, screaming his name; she got no response.

"Oh Riza. I'm so sorry," her grandfather said, placing his hands on her shoulders. She just stared. The funeral was small, and not many people came. Roy did. He was the only one who held her hand, and offer her a shoulder as she cried. He listened as she wailed on about how unfair it all was and now she was an orphan.

"If it makes you feel any better, I've been an orphan all my life," he said. Roy was nineteen. She'd never seen a man cry before like he did, even if it was really just silent tears.

**OK, that was only part one. lol**


	2. The Army

**Ok, chap. 2! Enjoy!**

She was pulled out of the military academy to fight in the Ishbalian War. She was one of only a select few students who held the talent of a Colonel though she would only be at the rank of a private. She was a sniper, taking orders, and hating ever minute of it. She fought alongside the State Alchemists who seemed to be hating the war as much as she but probably more. During a guerilla attack, she saw him. He was with another man who wore glasses and looked like he'd be better off behind a desk than at war. They were under heavy fire, so she did what she did best. She ran behind a piece of debris, positioned her rifle and shot. It took her no more than three shots and the eerie silence to know that they were dead. She came out from her perch and went down to help the two.

"Are you ok?" she asked. The obsidian eyed one looked up at her, squinting.

"Oh my, Riza…Hawkeye?" he stuttered. She nodded.

"I haven't seen you in so long. You cut your hair," he said, motioning to her boyishly short cut blonde hair. She nodded. 'Yeah, and you've grown up quite a bit too, Roy Mustang," she thought.

"Come on we can talk later. This isn't safe territory," she said. He nodded.

"Come on Hughes," he said, helping up the guy with the glasses who looked like he was about to throw up. Through the war, they spent as much time together as they could. The war was hard on all of them. But it hit home with Roy, as he was a State Alchemist and he was ordered to kill like no one should be allowed to. Even after the war, they all agreed, to help change the military. Maes and Riza both decided to follow Roy up through the ranks; to help support him from below. But there wasn't just the reform that Riza was working towards. There was something, deep within her heart; that also pushed her to protect Roy. Even though she now despised the military, her 'feelings' that had begun to form for Roy, told her to keep pulling the trigger to keep him safe. He was the only one close to her that she still had in the world. Through his egotism, laziness, over-confidence, and playboy attitude, she kept him in line, and helped him get through the ranks. She was his most trusted subordinate, even before Maes and she went everywhere that he went, to protect him. They talked a lot and she was always open to hear him whine, even though he would sometimes get a warning shot right past his head.


	3. The End

**Chap.3 Wow, this ended up begin worse off than I thought. Oh well I gave it a shot. I was trying to make some references to the movie but it didn't come out like I hoped, since I've never seen the movie. Duh. Ok, well, I tried. NO FLAMERS!**

"I cried never gonna hold the hand of another guy too young for him they told her waitin' for the love of the travelin' soldier our love will never end waitin' for the soldier to come back again never more to be alone when the letter says a soldier's coming home…"

-**_Travelin' Soldier-The Dixie Chicks_**

The Elric Brothers had so abruptly become involved in military affairs. It wasn't their fault that what they sought was above their level. The Homunculi had come in the way. Maes's death, Havoc being paralyzed, political turmoil, and military corruption. Roy knew the truth. He knew about the Fuhrer. They devised a plan that had been virtually fool proof. They had been separated to prevent them from foiling the Homunculi's plans, but nothing could stop Roy from his mission. They came to the Fuhrer's mansion. Roy went inside to take care of 'Pride' and Riza was there to take care of Archer. It seemed like hours till Roy emerged from the flaming building, bleeding and carrying the Fuhrer's son. Archer stood there and shot. Riza was right behind him. She aimed and fired four times. Archer collapsed. She ran up the pathway and up the stairs.

"Colonel!" she yelled, collapsing next to his limp and bleeding body.

"Colonel! Roy! Roy Mustang!" she yelled shaking him. No answer. Her eyes watered and she bent over. She touched her forehead to his back and cried. She couldn't believe that she had come late.

Riza sat on a stool in her room, peeling an apple into a bowl resting in her lap.

"Don't look like that," he said, his handsome baritone voice sending shivers down her spine. She looked up.

"The plan was perfect," she said, looking down. He fingered her hair. She was surprised. Roy had never been so gentle before.

"The world isn't perfect. And that's what makes it beautiful," he said. She smiled, and stuck a piece of the apple in his mouth. He bit apiece off and ate it.

"Do you feel up to a walk?" she asked. He swallowed the apple.

"Yeah, I think I can manage," he said. They walked through the small street, peeking at the vendors. Riza went over to an apple cart and examined the apples. Roy loved apples. She looked over at Roy and smiled. He smiled back. She blushed. That smile, the look in his eye, why was he looking at her like THAT. She got chills.

He had been away for a long time. Some remote location in the north. She missed him. He had been demoted for 'planned military uprising against the Fuhrer President' as they so kindly put it at the trial. All his now former subordinates were angry, but not as much as she was. Riza saw Roy die that day as they stripped him of his Brigadier General title, and decommissioned him. He was no longer part of the military body system and could not retrieve further ranks, but Corporal. She looked away. The way his eyes lost their confident shine, and his usually high head, dropped, and his shoulders slumped, she felt sick. How could they do that to him? He had done no wrong. She wanted to fight them, but he just shook his head, brushed past her, and left. She didn't go back to her apartment right away, she went to the range and just kept firing away. When she got home, a pile of bags were packed and set near the door. She walked in and went to her room. He was packing.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I have new orders. I'm leaving tonight," he said.

"What? They can't do that!" she yelled.

"Yes they can. They're the government. Listen, Riza, uh, ma'am, I'm sorry," he said. She stared at him like he was crazy.

"Ma'am?" she questioned.

"You're a First Lieutenant. I'm a Corporal," he said. Riza just stared at him, watching him pack. She turned on her heel, went to the door, and left. She didn't say good-bye. She wouldn't. This wasn't the end.

She thought of him everyday since he left. Every time she ate an apple, every time she passed his old office, every time she curled up in bed. She didn't wash one of the pillow cases because it smelt like him and that was the only piece of him she had left because he wouldn't reply to her letters or return her calls even though she would specifically order the messenger on the other line to tell him she called. Nothing. She was angry with him, but in love with him all the same. Eventually when they did meet up again, he was sad and depressed. She couldn't look at him because it made her sick. He was dead inside. All his confidence had been stripped away with his rank. She wanted to slap him. Acting all sorry for himself. Who did he think he was? So, she did slap him, and yelled at him and shot at him and it was like they were back in the office and he wasn't doing his paperwork, except she never slapped him in the office. He just took it all in and sad nothing. But when it came time to stop Eckhart and her army from destroying Amestris, he took full control and was back to the egotistical, over-confident man she loved. Once again she was always two-steps behind watching him walk tall.

Riza had pulled a few strings in the military and was able to get Roy positioned in Central under her as her personal assistant. They had mutually decided that it would be better for their relationship anyway, because long-distance relationships never worked out. They moved in together with Black Hayate, and choose to keep their little affair hush-hush, except for the few people they knew they could trust, and those few people were quite excited about the whole thing. Especially Havoc who seemed to have won a large sum of money from a bet they made regarding the Flame Alchemist and his Lieutenant. Things seemed to then settle down after the whole Eckhart incident. She swore to never love anyone else but him and she kept her promise because he came back to her and life was pretty much perfect. They'd discussed eloping but then decided an engagement would be better and a small wedding was fine. Nothing was finalized yet but she wore his ring even at work. They'd only talked about kids once and would wait until they had a few years of married life under their belts. People didn't talk; life just went on as it usually did. They'd come home, shower, eat, watch some TV, or go for a walk, and talk. She was usually the first to fall asleep and he'd just watch her and wonder if he's life could be any more perfect.

Owari 


End file.
